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The Global Digital Download is a weekly publication that aggregates resources on Internet freedom, highlighting trends in digital and social media that intersect with freedom of expression, policy, privacy, censorship and new technologies. The GDD includes information about relevant events, news, and research. To find past articles and research, search the archive database.

Recent amendments to the Internet law that violate privacy and aggravate censorship by further tightening state control over the Internet have received strong criticism from the EU and the US. Commenting on the latest amendments in an e-mail on Wednesday Ryan Heath, spokesperson for European Commission Vice President Neelie Kroes, told Today's Zaman that it is “bad news for freedom.”

Recent amendments to the Internet law that violate privacy and aggravate censorship by further tightening state control over the Internet have received strong criticism from the EU and the US. Commenting on the latest amendments in an e-mail on Wednesday Ryan Heath, spokesperson for European Commission Vice President Neelie Kroes, told Today's Zaman that it is “bad news for freedom.”

The Great Firewall of China is one of the wonders of the modern world. Hundreds of thousands of censors are employed to ensure that as little as possible is published on the internet that might inconvenience or threaten the government. The tendency among western liberals and pro-democracy types is to suppose that this must make the state less efficient. But suppose the censorship is so fine-tuned that it actually strengthens the repressive apparatus by making it cleverer, rather than simply squelching all opposition?

With journalists around the world being killed, kidnapped, and murdered in record numbers why is the Committee to Protect Journalists launching a campaign targeting U.S. government policies? The answer is simple. Because we must fight to preserve a global system on which independent and critical journalism depends.

If the Abbott government proceeds with its current proposal to crack down on online copyright infringement it will be reviving elements of Labor’s failed internet filter.It’s extraordinary that this government is considering such a scheme for two reasons. First, an internet filter is a censorship regime that poses a serious threat to freedom of speech. And second, the proposed regime will not put an end to online piracy.

Will freedom of information be one of the Ebola epidemic’s collateral victims? The Press Union of Liberia wrote to justice minister Christiana Tah on 4 September voicing alarm about the recent violations of freedom of information. The national newspapers have been repeatedly obstructed since the start of the Ebola outbreak. The investigative daily FrontPage Africa was ordered to turn off its generator. The police questioned the editors of Women Voices. A curfew has prevented reporters from going out at night. And the National Chronicle has been closed for the past three weeks.

As Congress returned from summer recess Monday, several technology and civil rights groups quickly renewed their push for a bill that seeks to put curbs on the bulk collection of phone records and Internet data by the government.

Turkey tightened control over the Internet and expanded the powers of its telecoms authority, augmenting the government's web censorship regime to allow it to more quickly block content without legal delays. A bill passed by parliament late on Monday handed the TIB telecoms authority the power to shut immediately any website deemed to threaten national security or public order.

The most recent amendment to the Internet law, granting the Telecommunications Directorate (TİB) extensive powers over Internet use, such as blocking access to websites without a court order, is a step that will turn Turkey into an intelligence state, analysts have said.